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INAUGURATION 



NEW HALL 



THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



March 18, 1884. 



PHILADELPHIA, 
1884. 




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THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



March 18, 1884, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

1884. 



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COLLINS PRINTING HOUSE, 
705 Jayne Street. 



IN BXGHANO* 



INAUGURATION OF THE NEW HALL OF THE HIS- 
TORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

The new hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is 
situated at the southwest corner of Thirteenth and Locust 
Streets, Philadelphia. 

The main portion of the building was erected by the late 
John Hare Powel, in 1832, for a residence. It was purchased 
in 1836 by Gen. Robert Patterson, who resided there until 
his death in 1881. The house stands twenty feet back from 
the building line on Locust Street. It is sixty feet front and 
forty deep, and, as originally planned, had wings of twenty 
feet each on the east and west, giving it a frontage of one 
hundred feet, extending westward from Thirteenth Street. 
The o-rounds of the mansion were bounded on the west by 
Juniper Street, and on the south by Wynkoop Street. In 
November, 1882, a portion of this lot (95 feet on Locust 
Street, by 120 on Thirteenth), including nearly all of that 
occupied by the building and its wings, was offered to the 
Society for $50,000. An examination of the property showed 
that it was admirably suited to the wants of the Society. It 
was substantially built ; its proportions were grand ; and its 
close proximity to the Philadelphia Library and the Library 
of the College of Physicians rendered its situation (central 
in all respects) a most desirable one for the objects of the 
Society. The refusal of the property until the first of Feb- 
ruary was obtained, and an appeal was at once made to the 
friends of the Society to enable it to make the purchase. 
So favorably was this proposal received that the Council felt 
justified in obtaining the refusal of thirty additional feet. 
These, with the lot first offered, making one hundred and 



2 Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 

twenty-five feet on Locust Street, were finally secured. An 
account of the subscriptions for the purchase of the property 
and of the expenditure for alterations will be found in the 
opening address of the President. 

The general features of the mansion have been but little 
changed. The western wing has been removed, and where 
it stood, and on the adjoining ground, a spacious hall, 45 by 
70 feet, has been erected for the meetings of the Society. The 
wing on the east has been rendered thoroughly fireproof. Its 
internal measurement is 16 by 37 feet. It is surrounded with 
a gallery, and affords ample space for the most valuable por- 
tions of the Society's collections. The doorways between 
the parlors on the first floor of the main building have 
been enlarged, so as to make the rooms, which are used as 
reading rooms, virtually one. The handsome marble mantel 
pieces have been retained. The upper portion of the building 
will be used for the storage of books and other articles of 
interest. 

The first general meeting of the Society in the new hall 
occurred on the evening of the 18th of March, 1884, a large 
assemblage being present. 

The President, Brinton Coxe, Esq., occupied the chair, and 
made the following address : — 

Fellow Members of the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania : — 
1 cono-ratulate you upon this most auspicious occasion. 
You have been invited here to-night to take possession of 
your new home, and to inaugurate it as the Hall of the His- 
torical Society ot Pennsylvania. After fifty-nine years of 
existence, you now meet under a roof which is your own. 
You are now no longer tenants of another, but proprietors, 
in your own right, of your own house, on your own soil. 
The moral and material anxieties connected with a precari- 



Inauguration of the ISlew Hall of the Historical Society. 3 

ous tenure, which were always matters of permanent solici- 
tude, are now at an end. 

The magnitude and excellence of these buildings speak 
for themselves. It is superfluous for me to praise them. 
Your own inspection suffices of itself to show how well our 
new home is adapted to the growing needs of the Society 
and its now enlarged mission. The lahorious and able ser- 
vices of your Building Committee have organized a building, 
or, rather, system of buildings, worthy of an Academy of 
History. The old mansion has been rearranged as a library 
and adapted to the wants of students and readers. On the 
one side is this spacious assembly-room for your meetings and 
for public lectures; on the other is a fire-proof building for 
our manuscripts and other historic treasures and for archives 
which have been confided to our custody by public authority. 
The hall of the Historical Society is now worthy of a repre> 
sentative public institution. 

The funds at the disposition of the Society for the pur- 
chase of this property, for new buildings and alterations, and 
for fixtures and furnishing have amounted to $88,466. Of 
that amount $8381 have been derived from the first building 
fund, and $14,115 from the second building fund. The 
remainder, amounting to the large sum of $65,970, has been 
derived from the generous subscriptions made during the last 
sixteen months by the members and the friends of the Society, 
who have thus secured the spacious edifice which we now 
inaugurate. The expenditures already made and still neces- 
sary to be made amount to $96,318. These expenditures 
have thus exceeded the receipts by the sum of $7852. There 
is, therefore, a deficit for that amount. 

I will not do more than call your attention to this deficit. 
A great historian of antiquity teaches us that he who begins 
an historic task should at the outset avoid complaints con- 
cerning past evils, and should dw-ell only on the good things 
which fortune has granted, for it would be ill-omened to do 
otherwise. Such a beginning, he seems to think, is the pro- 
per time to recall past blessings and benefactions only. I, 
therefore, pass from our deficit to more appropriate topics. 



4 Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 

Nearly sixty years since, this Society was planted like an 
infant colony in a new continent. At first it grew feebly, 
precariously, at times threatened with extinction. Years 
elapsed before a slow steady growth was secured. Then 
followed a healthy and more rapid growth. Here, on this 
occasion of assured success and established prosperity, there 
are present with us a very few survivors of the active few in 
the restricted numbers of our ancient membership. They 
have watched the society through the vicissitudes of a life- 
time. When it was helpless, they supported it by every 
service and every sacrifice. "When threatened with extinc- 
tion, they alone saved it. Through long years, they sum- 
mered it and wintered it. The delicate plant has now become 
the strong healthy tree, under whose shade we are gathered 
together. It is to-night, therefore, the first of our duties to 
remember, with heartfelt gratitude, benefactors, whose care, 
wisdom, and devotion have guided an association depending 
upon a small number of supporters to the independent con- 
dition of a representative public institution. 

Few, very few, of that devoted band are with us to-night 
to survey with mingled feelings this scene amid the gratitude 
of their fellow-members. But I cannot trust myself to dwell 
upon this subject, lest I be guilty of indiscretion ; for one 
of these survivors is that venerable member whose paternal 
care of this Society, during long years, commands the filial 
obedience of us all. That obedience compels me to refrain 
from an expression of gratitude, which his delicacy of feeling 
has ever shrunk from receiving. I must therefore say no 
more. 

As has been stated, the generous subscriptions of our 
members and friends, during the last sixteen months, have 
amounted in round numbers to $66,000. This great sum not 
merely constitutes an immense means of usefulness to the 
Historical Society, but also is a proof of the respect which it 
has earned in this community by years of tried service. It 
is also a recognition of our position as a valued institution 
necessary to the public welfare. We now know that our 
Society has general recognition as a cherished guardian of 



Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 5 

the history of the Commonwealth and the history of the 
country. Here, in this our permanent home, by the common 
consent, it will be our duty to afford the rising generations 
the means of knowing the inheritance which has descended 
upon them from tlie past, and of learning what lessons that 
past teaches them for their future. Here all, young and old, 
will find the means of investigating history, perpetuating 
historic evidence, and preserving records of the past. In 
some shape or otlier, all cities of men, both in modern as well 
as ancient civilization, erect temples to history and to mem- 
ory. This edifice is such a monument in this community. 
The Society dwelling therein is now regarded by their fellow 
citizens as an institution, through which the community dis- 
charges imperative duties, which neither government nor 
individuals can perform. 

Thus it is, that the mission of the Society has become en- 
larged and its duties have become greater. Centennial and 
Bicentennial anniversaries have stimulated the public atten- 
tion to historic interests and the preservation of historic 
evidence and records. The vigilance of historical societies is 
felt with truth to be more than ever necessary. Manuscripts 
and printed pieces are every day to be rescued from fire, 
damp, negligence, and accident. The opportunities of acquir- 
ing for public use such as are in safety demand a constantly 
increasing expenditure. Our task is one in which past suc- 
cess involves an increase instead of a diminution of future 
duties. The rich collections of manuscripts and books, 
which our Society has accumulated in many years, brings 
cares which increase as the collections themselves increase. 
Their possession imposes the diflicult task of making them 
used and useful. The publication and editing of texts and 
abstracts and of historical materials in every shape is now an 
exacting duty. Students and investigators must not only be 
made welcome under oilr roof, but every aid must also be af- 
forded them, which may increase the efficiency of individual 
exertion. In every way the duties imposed upon such insti- 
tutions as ours are increasing in number and in magnitude. 



G Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 

Our country has, indeed, a history and they must help to 
narrate it. 

What a story the narrators have to tell ! But two centu- 
ries ago, but six or seven generations ago, this Commonwealth 
was planted in a wilderness on the tide-waters of the 
Atlantic, and now our country stretches from ocean to ocean. 
The plough has ploughed its way from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. The founders of Pennsylvania thought that it might 
make its progress without its dread historic companion. It 
has been otherwise. The sword and the plough have 
marched together. Corn has been sown and the harvest of 
food has been reaped in every year. Dragon's teeth, too, 
have been sown and every generation has seen the harvest of 
armed men. The tragic tale of human nature at first seems 
in America to be the old, old story; but the history of the 
New World is, nevertheless, a new history. Though that 
history has been in part a tragedy, in the New World the 
years of peace have been much greater in number tlian in the 
Old World. The years of war have been fewer, much fewer, 
here than there. How to reduce war to a minitmiin is the 
greatest lesson which history can teach. The founders of 
Pennsylvania thought that war could be abolished. They 
erred, but their influence has been a weighty historical factor 
in producing the grand result by which more peace and less 
war has been secured in America than in Europe. The 
warning of the Old World must have been studied in the 
New. Such studies are those which it is the duty of every 
Historical Society in the whole land to foster, to sustain, and 
to guide. 

Fellow-members, there remains but one thing for me to 
say to you. I should be untrue to the place which I hold, if 
I did not recall our lost hopes and frustrated expectations 
that another voice would welcome you to this house. It 
would be ingratitude, most inauspicious ingratitude, to for- 
get the name of John William Wallace at this inauguration. 
His long devoted career of service and sacrifice to this Society, 
in its adversity and its prosperity, as member, as oflicial, and 



Inauguration of the New Hail of the Historical Society. 7 

as president, we all hoped, would have been crowned by liis 
presiding here to-night. But it was decreed otherwise ! 
Nevertheless, we know how he would have felt, had he been 
here. His last visit to this house was one of inspection, 
when everything was on the verge of completion. The 
buildings and their capacities of usefulness gave him entire 
satistaction. The fact that the Society had now a permanetit 
domicile relieved his mind of the anxieties, which he had 
felt for years, upon the complicated dangers of an inopportune 
change of location. The extent and value of the Society's 
property as increased by our recent subscriptions, the pres- 
tige and confidence which recent events had demonstrated 
that it enjoyed in the community, and the value of our 
library and collections made him feel confident that the basis 
upon which the Society now rested was thoroughly solid. 
There was, above all, the elder's confiding trust that his 
younger colleagues would perform their duty and continue 
the good work, and that therefore the future of the Society 
was secure. 

Such were his last thoughts within these walls. I repeat 
them to you now, for they are, indeed, good augury for the 
new future, which we begin to-night! 

President Coxe then introduced Professor John B. McMas- 
ter, of the University of Pennsylvania, who spoke, in sub- 
stance, as follows: — 

There is an old saying that a good thing needs no praising. 
Admitting this to be true, my duty this evening is clearly 
not to praise ; and this is most fortunate, for, were praising 
once begun, it would be hard to determine where most should 
be bestowed, on the building or on the liberality of the gentle- 
men who have so generously provided it. This much, how- 
ever, may at least be said: no Historical Society in the land 
has yet come into a fairer estate. This too >8 a subject of 
congratulation. It is a sign of life and progress. Not many 
years since an Historical Society was commonly believed to 
differ but little from a dime museum. People believed its 



8 Inauyuration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 

quarters to be a dingy room in an attic, and its treasures 
bullets from Bunker Hill and guns from Yorktown, arrow- 
heads from Tippecanoe, books nobody ever read, and portraits, 
as like as two peas, of gentlemen in small clothes with red 
curtains tastefully draped behind them, and cannons and 
flags beyond. That there was anything lively and human 
about such societies was doubted. But this, most happily, 
is so no longer. They can and they do perform a work which 
every one of us is concerned in having done welL Nothing 
is more certain than the fact, that the times in which we live 
will have for those who are to come after us an interest sur- 
passing anything which we feel for those who have gone 
before. To know something of the daily life of a great 
people who, in one generation, overspread a vast continent, 
drew to their shores millions of foreigners, fought a civil 
war and paid for it, produced the most marvellous inventions 
and discoveries, carried on business ventures upon a gigantic 
scale, and made enormous fortunes the order of the day, will, 
by our descendants, be thought matters worthy of note. 
How correct a judgment they form of us will depend solely 
on the material we transmit to them. Sources of history 
good a century ago no longer exist or are of little use. The 
age of the political pamphlet is gone. Whoever in 1984 
derives his notions of our morality from a newspaper, of 
our manners from a novel, of our politics from the pages of 
the Congresdonal Record^ and, with such material, recon- 
structs the world of to-day will produce something more 
atrocious than the patched up statues of Cesnola. To gather 
material for an honest history of the present, such as will 
show up fairly both sides of every controversy in politics, 
every discussion in morals, every great movement in social 
science, the condition of the laborer, the state of the arts, 
the life and manners of the time, is a proper labor for every 
Historical Society in the Innd. Each one should be a store- 
house for that carefully-sifted material by which alone poster- 
ity can see us as we are. A century hence this will be precisely 
the most diflicult kind of knowledge to acquire. JS'ewspapers 
will not furnish it, for they are not reliable. Letters will 



Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 9 

not contain it, for they are too hastily written to be of much 
value, and too numerous to be preserved. 

But there is yet another work peculiarly fitting for the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania to do. The close of the 
next presidential terra will be the one-hundredth anniversary 
of the beginning of Federal Constitutional Government in 
America. The event will no doubt be fittingly celebrated 
in a public way. There will surely be, in every city in the 
land, parades and fireworks in the streets, and, in Philadel- 
phia, perhaps, speeches in Independence Hall. All this is 
good in its way, but something better may be done. The 
importance of the Constitution is scarcely appreciated. It 
became the supreme law of the land on March 4, 1789. On 
July 14, 1789, the Bastile fell The Federal Government 
was hardly established before the influence of the French 
Revolution began to be felt in the United States, and that 
influence was tremendous. It changed the dress, it modified 
the speech, it powerfully affected the prosperity and political 
future of the nation. Men became so intensely republican 
that they could not shape their mouths to say Sir or Mr., but 
called their friends citizen and their wives citess. They left 
off wigs, wore the " Brutus crop," put on the Liberty cap, 
sang ^a ira, danced the Carmagnole, ate Civic Feasts, formed 
Democratic Clubs, gave the fraternal hug, and sought admis- 
sion to the Society of the Jacobins at Paris. The great 
shame of the Federal Republicans of that day is not that they 
maligned Washington as no other man ever has been maligned 
since. The Federalists would have done the same had Wash- 
ington opposed them. It is to their shame, however, that at 
a time when the Revolutionary Tribunal was turning Paris 
into a pen of slaughter, when the gutters ran blood into the 
Seine, when Lyons was made a waste place, when kites feasted 
on the corpses that whitened the banks of the Loire, when 
drowning boats, and " Republican marriages," and "national 
baths" had become the pastime of the French people, the 
Republicans of America could see nothing infamous in all 
these things. The party which then sprang up held high an 
extreme doctrine of republicanism. Liberty was to them 



10 Inaugy ration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 

license. A Ptrono; national government was to them buo 
another name for monarchy. Now, to put forth a correct 
showing of each side of the controversy, which during these 
years of French influence was waged over the Constitution, 
would be a great contribution to that history of the Con- 
stitution which is yet to be written. It belongs peculiarly 
to this Society. In this city the document was framed. In 
this city the first contest over it began, and here for ten 
years the Federal Government sat. To reprint the debates 
in the State Convention called to consider the ratification of 
the Constitution, to reprint the squibs, the essays, the pam- 
phlets, the comments that filled the journals and gazettes, 
in a word, to show what the people thought of the Constitu- 
tion from 1787 to I8O1', would be a most wise and useful work. 
The Society has done njuch for the past. At lengtli some 
justice has been rendered William Penn. Could Mr. Macaulay 
come back and read the books on these shelves, he would be 
compelled to rewrite his estimate of Penn. Let something 
also be done for the present. 

Mr. Charles G. Leland moved that the thanks of. the 
Society be tendered to Professor McMaster for his able and 
instructive address, with a request for a copy of the same for 
the use of the Society. 

The motion was seconded by Mr. Hampton L. Carson in 
the following words : — 

Mr. President: It gives me much pleasure to second the 
Resolutions just offered. We are indebted to Professor Mc- 
Master not only for the matter and manner of his address of 
this evening, containing many thoughtful suggestions, but 
particularly for the value of his example as an author in 
directing attention to the most important event in our polit- 
ical history as a people. I mean the formation of our 
National Government. 

It is true that there are other epochs more stirring in inci- 
dent, or more captivating to the fancy, but none more rich in 



Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 11 

results which havehlessed and benefited mankind. All that 
preceded the building of our Constitution would have been 
lost or squandered, and all that has followed it would have 
^been materially difiei'ent in character, had not the fruits of our 
Revolutionary struggles been preserved for all time in the 
Constitution of the United States. It was upon this great 
structure that the political architects of the day lavished 
their intellectual wealth, and hence to the philosophic stu- 
dent of our institutions, both here and elsewhere, there can be 
no period more curious, or which will better rej^ay his in- 
vestigations. It is the contribution of America to the Science 
of Politics. It is her attempt to solve that vexed [iroblem, 
which, from times long before the days of Plato, has agitated 
man. 

It is not the blind partiality of national prejudice to speak 
of our heroes in terms of admiration, nor is it mere enthu- 
siasm to speak of their work in words of praise. The men 
of our Revolution will compare favorably with those of any 
race or age whom history has recognized as great. Their 
characters were noble, their temper was tried by the severest 
tests, and their experience covered every field of human ac- 
tivity. As soldiers, they were distinguished ; no generals ever 
sur[)assed Washington and Greene in sagacity or in the 
power of wresting victory from defeat. As orators, they 
were illustrious ; few men ever equalled the fire of Henry 
or the classic elegance of Lee. As writers, they were pre- 
eminent; in nineteen hundred years but one Thomas Jeffer- 
son has arisen to pen such a document as the Declaration of 
Independence. Not Swift and Addison produced such pro- 
found results as pamphleteers as Paine and Franklin. As 
statesmen, they rank among the foremost of the world ; Ham- 
ilton and Madison and Jay, in the powder of constructive 
intellect, will yield to none in either ancient or modern 
Europe. 

The Constitution of the United States was the masterpiece 
of master minds. It is, fitly speaking, their crown and glory. 
It contains the best thoughts of statesmen trained in the best 
schools ; it embodies the political experience of the English 



12 Innuguration of the New Hail of ike Historical Society. 

race, and ranks with Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights 
as a bulwark of Human Freedom. The great work of fram- 
ing its provisions was done in this city, and the time is now 
close at hand when the Centennial Jubilee of the Constitu- 
tion will be celebrated. Surely there can be no higher patri- 
otic duty for any of us to perform than to study with 
reverence the deeds of that day. The appropriate work of 
this Society will be to illustrate the labors of the Federal 
Convention, to point out the part jjlayed by PenJisylvania in 
the great drama, to throw light upon all doubtful questions, 
to awaken individual interest, to stimulate individual inquiry, 
to assist individual effort and aid public exertion, to enter 
into correspondence with similar associations in sister States, 
and enforce upon the attention of the National Government 
the importance and necessity of collecting, preserving, and 
publishing all that relates to the origin of our Republic. We 
are not only to be congratulated, but we can fairly congratu- 
late ourselves that, owing to the energy and prudent manage- 
ment of our officers and the zeal of their co-operators, we 
enter, to-night, under the happiest auspices, upon a new 
career of usefulness and honor. 

" To form and uphold a state, it is not enough that our 
judgments believe it to be useful, the better part of our affec- 
tions must feel it to be lovely. It is not enough that our 
arithmetic should be able to compute its value and find it 
high, our hearts must hold it priceless, above all things rich 
or rare, dearer than health or beauty, brighter than all the 
order of the stars." 

In the spirit of these words of Rufus Choate let us dedi- 
cate ourselves to the work before us. 

The motion was then adopted. 

After this Mr. Lloyd P. Smith spoke as follows: — 

Mr. President: Thirty years ago I read a book entitled, 
"The Blackwater Chronicle; a narrative of an expedition 
into the land of Canaan in Randolph County, Va., a country 



Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical ISociety. 13 

flowing with wild animals, by five adventurous gentlemen, 
without any aid of goveimmejit." I am somehow reminded of 
that curious title-page when I think of this goodly building, 
this priceless collection of the records of our State and of the 
United States — it has been made without any aid of govern- 
ment. JSTot so with the newer and (shall I say) more enlight- 
ened States of the West, whose Historical Societies— and ad- 
mirable some of them are — have ever been supported wholly 
or in part by government. The State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin, for example, buys whatever its Library Commit- 
tee thinks proper, and the State foots the bill. Of course it 
has a good library. Pennsylvania, as a State, does not rec- 
ognize its Historical Society, and Philadelphia as a corpora- 
tion has never taxed its citizens one dollar to build it up. 
What we are as a Society we owe to the unselfish enthusi- 
asm, the unpaid toil of the late Mr. Watson the annalist, the 
late Mr. Hazard the historian, the late Mr. Armstrong the 
antiquarian, the late Mr. Wallace the man of letters — too 
soon taken from us — and others whose names I need not now 
recall ; we owe it to the unostentatious devotion of Mr. Jordan, 
the conscientious zeal and learning of Mr. Stone, the tact and 
perseverance of Mr. Ward, the unparalleled industry of Mr. 
Hildeburn,the liberal gifts of money or time and thought of 
many others. " A poor thing, your w^orship, but mine own." 
No, not a poor thing, Mr. President, but a thing to be justly 
proud of; and, as a Philadelphian, I, for one, am proud of 
it, exceeding proud. It is, in the treasures it has got to- 
gether, in the learning and courtesy of its oflicers, a real em- 
bodiment of sweetness and light, and unborn generations 
shall honor the memory of every man who had a hand in 
building up here in Philadelphia one of the really great 
historical collections of the country. 

In this building, admirably adapted to its purpose, the 
Society turns over a new leaf, it enters on a career of ex- 
panded usefulness. The edifice is not only larger and better 
adapted to the needs of the Society than the old one, but the 
situation is better, and I congratulate the Library Company 
whom I have the honor to serve, I congratulate the students of 



14 Iitauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 

Philadelphia and elsewhere on the fact that the Philadelphia 
Library, the Historical Society, and the College of Physicians 
— the best medical library, with one exception, in the country 
— are now all within a stone's throw of each other. The Law 
Library will doubtless soon move to Broad Street, and then 
four of the most important libraries of Philadelphia, each one 
supplementing the others, will be close together. These 
institutions, Mr. President, are not rivals, and still less ene- 
mies; they are allies. They fight together against the kingdom 
of darkness and ignorance and obscurantism ; they form square 
against the modern Goths and Vandals; their quadrilateral 
constitutes one mighty citadel of thought. 

Fellow members of the Historical Society ! I congratulate 
you also on the admirable choice you have made of a Presi- 
dent for the Society. A student and a collector all his life, 
he has not only the necessary scholarship, but he has the 
leisure and the inclination to serve your interests and the 
interests of historical science. Books, gentlemen , do not grow 
upon the shelves of a library ; they must be got together as 
Opie mixed his paints — " with brains, sir"— the truth being 
that the bibliographical knowledge needed for a wise selec- 
tion of books is one of the rarest accomplishments in the 
world. Your President has it and so has your Librarian. 
Long may they live to shed honor on our Society and to 
make Philadelphia illustrious among the cities of the world. 

The President then stated that when the Society was about 
to move into its new home a hope was expressed that the 
collection of portraits of its former presiding officers might 
be made complete, and that, when this came to the knowledge 
of the family of the late George W.Norris, M.D.,his surviving 
son and daughter with great liberality and consideration at 
once offered to have a portrait painted of their late father. 
This was accordingly done by a well-known artist, Mr. 
Matthew Wilson, of Lake George, New York, and the por- 
trait, which was displayed upon an easel by the side of the 



Inauguration of the New Hall of the Historical Society. 15 

President, was then tendered as a gift to the Society in a 
letter from William F. Korris, M.D., which was read by 
the Secretary. 

Henry Flanders, Esq., expressed the gratification whicli the 
members of the Society and the friends of Doctor Norris must 
feel that the Society had come into possession of the portrait, 
and oflfered the following resolution: — 

Resolved^ That the thanks of the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania be and they are hereby tendered to Dr. William 
F. Norris and Mrs. Mary F. Parsons for the excellent por- 
trait of their late father. Dr. George W. N'orris, formerly 
President of the Society, and for the kindness which prompted 
them in adding it to the Society's collection of portraits of 
its former presiding officers. 

The resolution was seconded by Dr. William Hunt, who 
said that the Historical Society would most gratefully accept 
the gift. No portrait is more fitting to be in its possession. 
It is that of a man who took a deep interest in all things 
pertaining to the welfare of the Society, It is that of one 
whose family had taken a most prominent part in the history 
of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia from the earliest colonial 
days to the present time. More than all, it is that of a man 
of truth, of one who was an honor alike to his city, his pro- 
fession, and his name. 

The resolution was then adopted. 

The meeting then adjourned. 



THE NEW HALL 

OP 

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



On the first of February, 1883, the Society purchased the 
house and lot of ground Ko. 1300 Locust Street, erected by 
John Hare Povvel, in 1833, and from 1835 until recently 
occupied by Gen. Robert Patterson. The means for this 
purchase were obtained as follows: — 

In 1855 a subscription was begun for a Building Fund for the 
Society. This, with additions from time to time, and with accrued 
interest, was kept well invested, and in 1883, yielded the sum of 

$22,496 65 

Late in 1882 a subscription in aid of the purchase was 
begun among members and others, and is yet continued. 





ig la mc ic 


MLIIU 


iXl LUIS 


ijme, I'J-ciy, 


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1 i 


subscription 


of $2000 00 . . 


$2,000 00 


20 


(I 




1000 


00 . . . 


20,000 


00 


33 


t( 




500 


00 . . . 


16,500 


00 


4 


a 




300 


00 . . 


1,200 


00 


25 


ii 




250 


00 . . . 


6,250 


00 


13 


n 




200 


00 . . . 


2,600 


00 


115 


a 




100 


00 . . . 


11,500 


00 


65 


ii 




50 


00 . . . 


3,250 


00 


1 


a 




66 


14 . . 


66 


14 


1 


a 




48 


20 . . . 


48 


20 


1 


a 




40 


00 . . 


40 


00 


1 


a 




30 


00 . . 


30 


00 


86 


a 




25 


00 . . 


2,150 


00 


25 


a 




20 


00 . . 


500 


00 


2 


(i 




15 


00 . . 


30 


00 


38 


n 




10 


00 . . 


380 


00 


1 


a 




6 


00 . . 


6 


00 


5 


n 




5 


00 . . 


25 


00 

66 575 34 


437 
















$89,071 99 



18' 

There has been paid for th.e real estate $62,500 GO 

" " taxes, policy of insurance . . . 935 00 

" " new buildings, alterations, etc. . 32,033 71 

Estimate for new work yet to be done 2,000 00 

$97,4(58 71 
Amount received 89,071 99 

Amount yet required . • $8,396 72 

The " estimate for new work yet to be done" is for the 
construction of suitable and secure cases for the display of 
rare books and manuscripts. These are of an extent and 
character well calculated to reflect credit upon the people of 
Pennsylvania, through whose liberality they have been 
obtained. This liberality can best be recognized by such a 
display. A portion of the projected work is for the rooms 
on the upper floors of the house. This, however, will re- 
quire but a few hundred dollars. 

The accounts of the Building Committee, of which the 
above is an abstract, have been audited by Messrs. "William 
P. Cresson, John B. Gest, and Brinton Coxe. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 207 181 2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 207 181 2^ 



